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A doctors' union has directed its members in the volatile North Eastern region to vacate immediately and called on the Government to move patients to safer places for treatment.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPPDU) said yesterday it had already directed the 25 doctors and pharmacists working in Mandera and Garrisa to move, owing to the worsening insecurity situation in the area.
According to KMPPDU officials, a pharmacist, Denies Biesse, is among the 28 people who were killed by Al-Shabab militants on Saturday morning. "Security and a doctor's preservation comes first. We should not fool ourselves with the narrative that if we take some measures like moving from insecure areas, we will embolden the terrorists," said the union's Secretary General Abidan Mwachi.
HARDSHIP ALLOWANCE
He said doctors were being paid Sh600 as hardship allowance and that the amount did not warrant the risks they were taking, given that health facilities in the region lacked security.
KMPPDU becomes the second union to announce its members will withdraw their services from North Eastern after the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) made similar directives on Sunday.
Seven teachers were killed in the Saturday massacre after the bus they were travelling in from Nairobi to Mandera was hijacked. Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion directed non-native teachers practising in the area to vacate.
The doctors' union said it has lost five doctors through insecurity in the last one year despite their efforts to save lives of victims.
"We lost Ashford Mboga and Albert Obiri in Meru, Johnson Teyie in Nakuru and Fred Mwaura during the Mpeketoni attacks and now we have lost Biesse in Mandera. This is a big number given the shortage of medical staff we are experiencing in the country," said Dr Mwachi during a press conference at Coast General Hospital in Mombasa.
On the eve of the Mpeketoni attacks, the union called on its members to vacate Lamu and since then, the county authorities have in vain tried to fill those positions.
"Lamu County has advertised for the positions after we pulled out our members and they are yet to fill them. We have advised all medical experts who will continue to operate in volatile regions that they will have themselves to blame," said Mwacha.
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